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Before production began, Star Trek Beyond went through a little bit of behind the scenes chaos, with Simon Pegg having to step in to take over writing duties when Roberto Orci – thankfully – parted ways with the studio. Now, with Fast & Furious director Justin Lin at the helm, things are looking up for the movie, and Idris Elba’s (Luther) involvement is no doubt a big part of that.

While character details are being kept under wraps, we do know that the British actor is playing Star Trek Beyond‘s villain, and he had nothing but good things to say about the journey Pegg’s screenplay is taking him on.

“Simon [Pegg] and the team have written a very interesting, complex journey for my character. You’ve never seen me play a character like this.”

As for how he feels to join the franchise, Elba went on to talk in detail about that and even teased what we should expect from his “groundbreaking” bad guy when he squares off against the crew of The Enterprise next year.

“I think Star Trek has prided themselves as being quite classic when it comes to villains. He’s a guy who wants to end the world, there’s no doubt about that. But in this version of the film, there’s a slightly different twist to that. It’s quite an interesting journey, which I think is groundbreaking for the franchise. But, it still keeps with the ’classic bad guy is a classic bad guy’ tone.”

Both Eric Bana and Benedict Cumberbatch did a great job with their villainous roles in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how Elba compares. Based on his past work though, he should have no trouble stealing the show.

We’ll find out for sure whenStar Trek Beyond is released on July 22nd, 2016.